Australia vs India: Kohli and Rohit shine in Border-Gavaskar Trophy | Cricket news

Seeing the front page of a Sydney newspaper was enough to make one gasp out loud. Virat Kohli’s face, above folded arms, stares back at the Daily Telegraph, a picture that takes up the entire top half of the page. A small picture of Pat Cummins sat in the lower left corner. The most arresting feature, however, was the golden title in Hindi with an English translation underneath: Fight for the ages.

The remaining page was split equally between the two languages ​​with a message from Australia’s Test captain and on the back page was an article about India’s opening batsman, Yashasvi Jaiswal, in Punjabi and English.

That Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp publications across Australia had headlines in multiple languages ​​ahead of Friday’s first Test in Perth shows the new dimension of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT). Many discussions have asked whether BGT has passed the Ashes as the biggest rivalry in Test cricket. Any conclusions are subjective and subjective, but India’s dominance of the competition since their last series in 2014, including back-to-back wins over Australia in 2018-19 and 2020-21, has ensured a lot of international interest.

Former Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist believes the game’s fascination with BGT has been fueled by India’s decade-long success.

“It also creates an amazing rivalry,” Gilchrist said. “There are a few guys in this Australian team who have never beaten India in a series. So there is some limited success in this team against India in Tests as an incentive.”

Kohli, naturally, dominates the coverage ahead of the first Test at the Perth Stadium, but the tone has changed. A decline in returns and batting in recent years has raised the question of whether the end of his Test career is near. Former India Test cricketer Deep Dasgupta believes it may be crucial for Kohli, 36, to regain the mindset that fueled his best performances in Australia.

“Mentally, he was always up for a challenge,” Dasgupta said. If you look at Virat’s work over the years, you would say: ‘Oh, he explains,’ because, even if there was nothing, he would create something in his mind to go on.

“Last year was not so good for Virat. I don’t see that side. He seems very calm. I wonder if that silence has not helped his cricket. This is probably the twilight of his career, but I think Virat needs to find that anger that got him going, that space that can help him as a person.”

Gilchrist has also noticed a change in the former India captain and believes Australia should be wary of any attempts to get under Kohli’s skin.

“Virat will be serious about it,” Gilchrist said. “It doesn’t seem to me that Virat is listening to a lot of outside noise. As a young character, he used to be maybe a little inspired by it. He was an aggressive character who was involved, never backing down, but there is an element of calm about him now. Whether that allows him to reach those heights, only he knows. I would be tempted not to try to date him, I would just keep quiet.”

India will enter this series with a 3-0 home defeat against New Zealand, which has increased the pressure on the struggling team. India’s captain, Rohit Sharma, who will be absent from the first test after the birth of her second child, he has 37 while Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have 38 and 35, respectively. It will probably be the last time the four play together in Australia.

“Discussions have moved quickly in the last month and a half with the senior players,” Dasgupta said. “Before the Indians season, they were talked about [the players] you will decide. They have a few years left. The conversation has shifted to ‘We need to look beyond them now’ – and the talk now is that this could be Rohit’s last series as captain.

“You can never ask players like Rohit or Virat because they can have an off season or a series here and there. But can they do it? Can they find that last spark? Yes they can.”

Australia have not played a Test since March when they beat the New Zealand team that has given India so much trouble of late. There were also limited opportunities for the red ball at the start of the domestic season, but it is not stable, if it is also getting old. Uncapped member, 23-year-old Nathan McSweeney, is the only player expected to start Australia’s under-30 XI.

“Steve Smith looked really open and comfortable in the two ODIs he played [against Pakistan this month],” said Gilchrist. “It’s his to match Jasprit Bumrah it will be a big fight if Bumrah gets a shot at it with the new ball. Then you move on to guys like McSweeney, Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne, how well they can defend that middle order against Bumrah batting early. They have had difficult situations [over recent years]. Easy run-scoring was not yet available.”

Gilchrist and Dasgupta both believe the series could be decided by how the bowling attacks exploit Australian conditions. Australia’s core group of quicks – Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc – in tandem with the spin bowling of Nathan Lyon are a known and formidable force. Bumrah will be India’s spearhead as well as captain for the first Test, but – aside from the spin duo of Ashwin and Jadeja – India’s fast-bowling experience in Australia is limited.

“These are pitches which should suit the Indian batters,” Dasgupta said. “You know you can hit through the line once you’re set, ball coming on to the bat, not much lateral movement. There are question marks in India [about] Shubman Gill and Jaiswal. The series against New Zealand was a nightmare, perhaps, but how does the team react? Choice and change? It looks like they are panicking, which is not a good sign. When the team managers start taking such calls, it affects the safety of the players, their confidence. The hard work of the captain and management is to make sure that everyone is mentally healthy.”

Gilchrist expects the potential battle between Rishabh Pant and Lyon to be a key factor in the series, with average runs from both sides. “The batting, which can happen to both teams, is where it changes,” Gilchrist said. “There is no team that always puts together strong games to beat the team. They often relied on one innings that changed games when the momentum was against them.

“Look at it another way and look at the bowling. I am very impressed with the Australians that their bowling quartet is versatile and they are used to the terrain. India have the best weapons in that lineup, but a lot of the burden will fall on Bumrah in these situations. I think it will benefit Australia this time. “

An Indian team that has been successful for a long time but has been hurt by recent failures against an Australian team hungry to bring back some glory at home with encouraging memories of defeating India in last year’s World Cup and World Test Championship finals.

Expect more headlines in any language. A battle of the ages, indeed.